Art

     Art is a noun, defined as: the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.
   

What does that mean to me? 

     According to aesthetic principles... I'm not fond of that statement. I believe everyone has their own interpretation of what is beautiful and knows what appeals to their senses. Who is to say that the quality of one work of art is greater than another when everyone has different taste in what they like to see, feel, and hear. What is ordinary? We all, to some extent, can choose our surroundings and tend to gravitate to what we find stimulating to our own unique personalities. We choose those principles for ourselves. I decide what I think is beautiful.
   

What is art?

     There have been many forms of art throughout time and across the world. Cave paintings that have been dated to 40,000 years old are believed to be some of the first art ever produced by humans. Dance more than likely started out as ritual and evolved into art but paintings of dance have been dated to 9,000 years old. Music is probably the oldest art form believed to have started by mimicking sounds in nature. It has been in existence for 55,000 years. That is a lot of time to develop human creativity...

     We've come a long way from cave painting, ritual dance and imitation of sound. Now there are seemingly endless forms of art in any mediums you can think of to use. Natural materials, metals, ink, words, photography, different kinds of paint, I've even made things from different types of tape. What started out as ceremonial or ritual dancing has transformed and evolved in to various forms of dance like ballet, modern dance, jazz and hip hop, just to name a few. The evolution of music is no different. In my neck of the woods it seems like there are a lot of polkas and country music but with so many genres I find myself listening to much more. Art is whatever inspires us.

Who can be an artist?

     Even though there are a lot of people who consider themselves not to be artistic I think everybody has the ability to create art. I've always enjoyed drawing and painting and choose to use my creativity in various forms. I do better with some mediums than others but I'm not afraid to try something new. My younger brother, who doesn't consider himself to be artistic at all, had taken a couple of art classes in high school and never thought what he made looked very good. I however love some of the things that he has created and asked if I could have them. Anyone can be an artist. Anyone can create art. If you have the passion to create something I have no doubt that somebody somewhere will find it appealing to their senses.

     Life is full of many feelings and emotions. These are the things that inspire us to create art. Being happy, loved, admired, respected, sad, experiencing great joy or a loss, extreme anger or sometimes feeling nothing at all. I believe there is a spark inside all of us just waiting to ignite, we just need the right inspiration to get it started. What is your inspiration?